Today’s Bible reading is Numbers 27-28, Psalm 53, and Luke 9. Our devotional is from Numbers 27.
Numbers 27 marks the end of an era and inevitably, a changing of the guard for Israel.
Numbers 27 opens with Moses bringing a problem before the LORD (27:1-5), seeking His wisdom, and returning to the people to state God’s will in a matter (Numbers 27:6-11).
Knowing Moses was nigh 120 years old, the immediacy of his death was a given; however, such is rare in the human spirit that is deeply invested in this world. With what seems a unceremonial abruptness, the LORD reveals to Moses his death is imminent and commands him saying,“Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. 13 And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered” (Numbers 27:12-13).
With meekness that has characterized his life (Numbers 12:3), Moses accepted the consequence of his sin without protest” (27:14; 20:7-13) and wisely requested the LORD “set a man over the congregation before his death (27:15-16).
Evidencing his love for the people in his charge, Moses desired to prepare the nation to move forward in his absence. He did not want his successor to be a man chosen by a popular vote of the people; he wanted the man of God’s choosing. A man who would “go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd”(27:17).
Israel needed a leader with a shepherd’s heart and God chose “Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit” (27:18).
Moses confirmed Joshua before “all the congregation” (27:19) and challenged the people to honor and obey him (27:20). Making certain “Eleazar the priest…and all the children of Israel” (27:21) understood Joshua was God’s man, Moses “laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the LORD commanded” (27:23).
Moses was one of the greatest men to ever walk the earth; however, his death was inevitable (Numbers 27:13). Miriam, Moses’ sister was dead. Aaron his brother was dead. Because he had sinned before all the people, Moses would die short of the Promise Land (27:14).
My friend, I close reminding you, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This earthly life is temporal, like “a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14b). The author of Hebrews writes, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
In our youth we dream and plan for careers, marriage and family. We make vocational choices and set goals. Too many of us are guilty of failing to plan for the inevitability of our own death. What about you? Is your household in order?
Wise men and women plan for the future.
Copyright 2019 – Travis D. Smith